Gear mechanics of paladins as tanks
The success of a tank depends highly upon his gear. Fortunately, gear for tanking Paladins is mostly the same as gear for tanking Death Knights and Warriors, so it is not difficult to find. Basics of Tanking The job of a tank can basically be divided into two things: #Produce a sufficient level of threat so that the mobs keep attacking him; #Stay alive with enough mitigation and large amount of health. These are also the basic factors concerned when choosing tankadin gear. Gear Mechanics: Threat Generation Strength is the primary stat a tankadin needs for threat production. The amount of strength needed depends on your group's DPS. Other stats that improve threat production include expertise rating, hit rating, block chance and block value. (Hit rating also affects Righteous Defense.) Haste rating is mostly useless because of skill cooldowns. As of 3.2.2, stamina no longer increases spellpower as Touched by the Light was changed to scale from strength instead. Tankadins no longer need to stack Intellect or mp5 in order to have mana, and there is no level 80 tank gear that has either one. To effectively tank and maintain a threat lead, Righteous Fury must be turned on. Gear Mechanics: Survivability Becoming uncrittable is the foremost concern for level 80 tankadins gearing up for raids. Paladins need at least 540 defense (base 400 + 140 defense), to be uncrittable by raid bosses, and 535 defense to be uncrittable in heroics. 4.92 Defense Rating gives 1 Defense. 540 defense can be achieve by wearing enough gear with defense rating. A naked level 80 Paladin has 400 defense, and will need ((540-400)*4.92) = 689 defense rating to reach 540 defense. After becoming uncrittable, the next priority is more health and armor, and then block and avoidance. Lastly, some items have block value (not block rating) on them. When we block an attack, a certain fixed amount of damage is "blocked". This amount is the sum of "block" on your shield and block value from other items, as well as contribution from strength. Block value is good to have but not strictly necessary unless when AOE tanking. Raid bosses usually hit for several thousand damage, so blocking a few hundred is not going to help much. On the other hand, when AOE tanking trash mobs, you are getting more frequent but weaker hits. In such case, damage prevented by block becomes quite significant. Therefore, some tankadins would keep a set with high avoidance and stamina for boss encounters and another with high block value (and block rating) for trash mobs. Blizzard did however announce that in the next expansion blocking will reduce damage by a percentage rather than flat value. Easily Attainable Pre-Heroic Tanking Gear Gearing up your tankadin is much easier in WotLK than TBC. There is a great Blacksmithing set and with the new Championing system grinding reps is extremely easy and has some very good tanking rewards as well. Below is a list of some easy to obtain yet good tanking gear. If you still need enchants or gems (to meet 535 defense or certain HP for heroics), see the next section. Head: (blacksmith crafted) or (Oculus) or (blacksmith crafted) Neck: (quest reward) with or (Utgarde Pinnacle) Shoulders: (blacksmith crafted) Back: (The Wyrmrest Accord honored) Chest: (blacksmith crafted) or (Utgarde Pinnacle quest) or (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Wrists: (blacksmith crafted) Hands: or (both blacksmith crafted) or (Kirin Tor exalted) Belt: (blacksmith crafted) or Leggings: or (both blacksmith crafted) Feet: (blacksmith crafted) or (Knights of the Ebon Blade revered) or (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Rings: (quest reward) or (quest reward) or (Gundrak) or (The Oculus) Trinkets: (quest reward) until (Halls of Lightning) Weapon: (quest reward) or (Halls of Lightning) Shield: or (both blacksmith crafted) Libram: until (Badge of Justice reward) until (Venture Coin reward) It is also worth noting . These are engineer only items and require a , but a Frozen Orb can be bought on the Auction House, or if you can run some heroics you may get one. This head piece is comparable to the Tier 7 10-Man, and so can be used in the early end-game. Easily Attainable Pre-Raid Tanking Gear Once you have the above set you should dive into heroics. There are many great gear upgrades, including some epics, that will get you well on your way to tanking Naxxramas successfully. The final boss of each heroic drops an epic item equivalent to 10-man Naxxramas gear. Head: (Gundrak Heroic) or (Engineer crafted) Enchant: (Argent Crusade Revered) Neck: (25xEmblem of Heroism) or (Jewelcraft Created) (19x ) Shoulders: (Halls of Stone) or (Halls of Lightning Heroic) or (Gundrak Heroic) Enchant: (The Sons of Hodir Honored) or (The Sons of Hodir Exalted) or (Scryers Exalted) or (Aldor Exalted) or (crafted) or (PvP reward) Back: (The Wyrmrest Accord honored) or (Nexus Heroic) Enchant: or Chest: (The Wyrmrest Accord Revered) Enchant: or or Wrists: (Ahn'kahet Heroic) Enchant: (Release 3.0.8) Hands: (Violet Hold Heroic) or (Kirin Tor Exalted) Enchant: Belt: (Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic) or (40xEmblem of Heroism) Leggings: (Violet Hold Heroic) or (Argent Crusade Honored) Enchant: or Feet: (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Enchant: Rings: (Gundrak) or (Halls of Stone Heroic) or (The Oculus Heroic) or (Drak'Tharon Heroic) Note: Rings should be chosen based on your need of defense. If you are capped with only one ring equipped then get the Keystone Great-Ring. If not, then use the rings that get you capped. Trinkets: (Halls of Lightning) and (Azjol'Nerub Heroic) Weapon: (Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic) Enchant: Shield: (Culling of Stratholme Heroic) or (Blacksmith Created) or (35xEmblem of Heroism) Enchant: or Libram: (Venture Coin Reward) or (15xEmblem of Heroism) Gems: Red: or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Yellow: or ; or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Blue: or ; or Meta: ; ; Other Tips *During certain raid encounters, high resistance of specific schools of magic is needed. (e.g. Hydross the Unstable) Therefore, you need to replace the usual equipment with high-resistance gear. Some fights in 5-man instances also benefit from resistance gear, although it is not strictly necessary. Please see the related link for a list of resistance gear. Wish-List after Patch 3.3 With the changes in Patch 3.3, this raiding gear can be purchased with that will now drop from 5-man heroics, in addition to most WotLK raids. The costs may be subject to further change. Also, remember that with items that cost emblems of lower value than , you can trade for at the Emblem of Triumph vendor, and so on through the rest of the lesser emblems. Look to the emblem flow chart on any of the emblem information pages for more information about the conversion rate. Head: (75x ) Neck: (19x ) Shoulders: (45x ) Back: (25x ) Chest: or (50x ) Tier 9 Piece, available at the blacksmith shop in Dalaran. Turalyon's is available to Alliance and Liadrin's for the Horde. Wrists: (60x ) Hands: or (30x ) Belt: (28x ) Leggings: or (50x ) Feet: (40x ) Rings: (35x ) and (25x ) Trinkets: (50x ) and (40x ) Libram: (25x ) For your weapon and shield, you can keep from Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic and from Culling of Stratholme Heroic until you are able to acquire a raid level weapon and shield from an actual raid. For gem and enchanting suggestions, look to the Pre-Raid Tanking Gear section above. Remember that as you are able to stay comfortably within the defense rating soft cap of 540, you should begin to gem and enchant more for stamina and strength, for further mitigation and threat generation respectively as you begin/continue raiding. Alternative weapons to the from the new Icecrown 5 man instances are from Forge of Souls Normal mode, from Pit of Saron, and from Halls of Reflection. Remember these instances will be more challenging than the traditional Wrath of the Lich King heroics. As for shield there is also the option, though a difficult drop from Halls of Reflection Normal mode for your shield. Additionally, once you've begun to acquire from raids and running the first random dungeon heroic each day, you can eventually replace some of the above with the following items from the Emblem of Frost vendor. Back: (50x ) Chest: (95x ) Hands: (60x ) Belt: (60x ) Trinket: (60x ) Libram: (30x ) Tier Pieces There are pieces known as the Lightsworn Battlegear available at the blacksmith shop in Dalaran. There is the option of obtaining these gauntlets and leggings both item level 251 and 264 from of Archavon. These can be upgraded to 264 versions upon raiding and obtaining a Useful links Maintankadin Forum: Gear Section A good place to discuss anything about tankadin gear Beginning Level 80 Plate Tank Gear Frequently updated listing of plate tank gear, that can be obtained without dungeon boss drops. Advanced Level 80 Plate Tank Gear Frequently updated listing of plate tank gear, that can be obtained from dungeons (via boss drops, badges, etc.). List: Tanking Gear Uncrushability Value (TBC) A handy list of avoidance/blocking provided by tanking gear Resistance Gear (TBC) A complete list of resistance gear Warcrafter.net Sandbox A useful tool for planning your gear! Wowhead.com/profiler Another useful tool for gear planning. See also * Paladins as tanks * Paladin builds#Protection * Spell hit * Spell power coefficient Category:Gear guides Category:Paladins Category:World of Warcraft equipable items Category:Tanking